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[Neco]

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone has had success with this  player,  before I bother attempting to  serve media to it.   Especially on Windows 7 it is a real pain, and that is to just to get it to browse as a standard  Network connection.. Most of my files are in MKV format, so I have to do it this way since  Win7 is "broken" when it comes to streaming them.

I would be really thrilled to hear its possible to get Streaming working with  MC and a WDTV Live,  especially if it works for  MKV files..  
I don't really have a lot of experience with  DLNA and Streaming and that kind of stuff,  but I am technically competent and proficient,  so I'm not afraid of a little work  (but I'd rather avoid it).

And I suppose on the off chance someone has made one...  Is there a guide for this specific combo?

[JimH]

There are several models.  I think we have a WD HD TV Live.  We like it.  It works pretty well as a DLNA Renderer.  I'm not sure about MKV.  Someone else will know. 

[Sauzee]

Yes Media Center and WDTV  work fine together, including for mkv files.

Only issue I have was getting subtitles to display over DLNA.

Was very easy to set it up too. WDTV sees MC DLNA, so select it as the source..and that's it!

[Neco]

Cool, I will look into trying this out sometimes.  Thanks.

I don't want too many subtitled works, so hopefully won't be an issue.

[csimon]

Yes, I have one and it works well with MC for all types of files, including MKV.

[NickF]

I just bought a WD TV Live Plus on eBay to see how well they work, having had so much trouble with my Sony TVs.   Is there a preferred set of DLNA Server settings for this?  For video, I am currently using:

Conversion: Convert unsupported formats
Encoder: MPEG2/DVD/PAL stream

Advanced:
DLNA
DLNA Extra

I understood that these devices supported a wide range of file types but practically nothing works without conversion.

I'm having similar stuttering problems to the Sony DLNA setup.  Not too impressed so far!

Nick

[stevemac]

Hi,

WD TV Live Streaming Media Player has worked fine for me with MC 17 & 18.  I've always used the wired connection for video, wireless (802.11G) has been fine for audio.

The DLNA settings I use are
Audio - Always convert: Uncompressed - L16 - No Header
Video - Never Convert
Advanced - DLNA and DLNA extra ticked

My library consists of M4A & FLAC audio, DVD Rips (folder structure), DVD to MKV and Bluray to MKV (both using MakeMKV)

the only gripe I have with the WD device is lack of gapless audio.

Good luck,

Steve

[NickF]

Thanks, Steve.  I have made some progress with your settings.  My problem now is a network bandwidth one.  I have been using Homeplugs to get my network to the TV concerned and it won't handle HD media.  Looks like I'm going to have to run an Ethernet cable.   

One issue I am finding is that music files pushed from MC or sent by WebGizmo don't show cover art.  If I pull the file using the WD TV Live UI, it works OK.  The art is in the files.  Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Nick.

[JimH]

My problem now is a network bandwidth one.  I have been using Homeplugs to get my network to the TV concerned and it won't handle HD media.

Maybe newer devices would help.  Ethernet over powerline keeps getting faster.  500Mbps (at least) is available.

[csimon]

One issue I am finding is that music files pushed from MC or sent by WebGizmo don't show cover art.  If I pull the file using the WD TV Live UI, it works OK.  The art is in the files.  Any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Yes, that does seem to be an issue with the WD TV, I have exactly the same problem. The feeling is that MC sends the correct data but some renderers don't read it when they're being "played to".

[bob]

Yes, that does seem to be an issue with the WD TV, I have exactly the same problem. The feeling is that MC sends the correct data but some renderers don't read it when they're being "played to".

That's correct, it's a bug in the WD firmware.

[sskings]

Are there other devices similar to this one that readers highly recommend?

[bob]

Are there other devices similar to this one that readers highly recommend?

Wish I had a good answer. They all seem to have some quirks. I did see on Engadget that the number of certified DLNA devices doubled last year. That's a hopeful sign.

[sorepinky]

I have today set up a WD TV Live renderer with MC17.  I'm only interested in music - not video, so simply have it connected to an old DAC with the optical cable.  Under MC I have called it "Western Digital Live" and a short while after powering it on this appears under the other main player which is "Berkeley Alpha USB" in the Playing Now area.  I've set it so that for Western Digital Live,  MC converts everything to 16/44.1 and it works for a while but then Westen Digital Live disappears from the Playing Now area and it reverts to Berkeley Alpha USB.  This happens both with a wired ethernet connection and the wireless connection between WD Live unit and the router.  It's hard to say for sure what triggers it, but it seems to be at least every other time I use Gizmo on a Toshiba tablet.  To get Western Digital Live to appear again I must turn the WD Live TV unit off and then on again, but then it's still only good for a few tracks and it goes bananas.

Is there something I'm overlooking?

Thanks in advance.

[bob]

You are "converting always" to wave and pushing the content I assume.
Since you've got "convert always" on, are you also setting the sample rate to 44100 (not "same as source")?
Also, you've got the most recent build: 17.0.189, correct?
Is the content on your MC PC or somewhere else (like a NAS)?

[csimon]

I've had a similar experience in the last couple of days, I have a WD TV and also my media is on a NAS. Every time I tried to select the WD TV using J Remote (a web services client like Gizmo) then WD TV disappeared from the list of zones in MC and I couldn't control it. Resettting hte thing soemtimnes worked, soemtimes didn't. The WD TV has always been a bit faqlky with regards to network.

[sorepinky]

Hi Bob and thanks.  

Yes I'm on build 189.
No not "Convtering always".  Under DLNA Servers/Audio Conversion I have set "Convert Unsupported Formats".  Below that I chose Encoder: "Uncompressed L16 - No header".
In DSP studio I set everything to convert to 44100 with a 16 bitdepth as it's an old Conrad-Johnson DAC (pre-DVD even) after the WD Live.
Content is on a hard drive in the same PC as MC.

While typing this it just happened again after three short 24/176.4 FLACs - lost sound and Western Digital Live disappeared from Playing Now area.

Incidentally on the WD TV live there is good signal strength - 3 bars out of 4.  After this crash I checked the connection at the WD and it's good.

Ah!  as i keep typing Western Digital Live has reappeared "magically" (I didn't reboot the WD) and I can play again.  At the first attempt to replay it came up with an error message about a wrong format which I cleared and tried again and it's playing again.

There is something flaky going on in there somewhere.  

Oh - I have not used the Gizmo today so I guess that's out of the equation.

later..

I changed it to "convert always" and it's still playing up the same way as before.

later again...

OK I might be getting on top of this having searched more deeply into these forums.  
I have ticked both "Ignore Transport Events (use polling mode)" and "Disable SetNext Support (for broken renderers)" in the DLNA Controller Options which appears when right clicking on "Westen Digital Live" in the Playing Now area.

It's been playing for 20 minutes now without a hiccup.  I'll come back and say that it's all good with fingers crossed tomorrow.

later...

Nup!  after another 5 minutes "Western Digital Live" vanished again.  I could hear the track playing through the WD until it came to the end and then the next track did not start.  The only thing now showing under Playing Now is the Berkeley.  I'm sure if I sit here for 10 minutes it will magically reappear.

and last "later"

it's just popping in and out all day at varying intervals.

I'm sure others must be suffering this.

[toto45]

Yep, same problem here, very difficult to play video contents. Images and audio is almost perfect.
Or I get the message "this is streaming content from windows 7" displayed by the WDTV or the player is crashing, or MC18 is crashing...
I used many other streamers like mezzmo, plex, ps3 media server etc... with a very good success rate.
As WDTV is a mainstream player, it is strange that it is not supported on MC18.
On my Android phone, MC18 streams ALL my contents perfectly, so strange it doesn't work on WDTV who supports a lot more formats than my android player... !! :-(
Do you plan to test MC with WDTV ?
Thanks

[toto45]

ok, figured out how where the problem is... When I set trancode everything to mpeg2 or mp4 etc... even MX player on Androïd hangs, MC18 hangs, crash... so the problem s clearly MC side as all the same media are transcode perfectly with mezzmo or ps3 media server...

So the workaround is to just use the standard dlna profile with video set to NEVER CONVERT

As the WDTV can decode almost everything, it works fine for 95% of my medias.

I've setup a test folder with all the different formats I use (mp4 mpe2 flc avi divx xvid mkv mov etc.) ... and Just flv files where not playable.
the WDTV just displayed a message that the format was not compatible, but no crash or hangs anymore... definitively more WAF compliant ;o)
Avoiding transcoding gives also better seek functionalities.

ANYWAY, I'm in trial Period with MC, I hope the transcoding in MC18 will be working before I reach the end of the 30 days.

This said, MC18 is amazing for pics and audio.

[NickF]

I have today set up a WD TV Live renderer with MC17.  I'm only interested in music - not video, so simply have it connected to an old DAC with the optical cable.  Under MC I have called it "Western Digital Live" and a short while after powering it on this appears under the other main player which is "Berkeley Alpha USB" in the Playing Now area.  I've set it so that for Western Digital Live,  MC converts everything to 16/44.1 and it works for a while but then Westen Digital Live disappears from the Playing Now area and it reverts to Berkeley Alpha USB.  This happens both with a wired ethernet connection and the wireless connection between WD Live unit and the router.  It's hard to say for sure what triggers it, but it seems to be at least every other time I use Gizmo on a Toshiba tablet.  To get Western Digital Live to appear again I must turn the WD Live TV unit off and then on again, but then it's still only good for a few tracks and it goes bananas.

Is there something I'm overlooking?

Thanks in advance.

I've been having the same problem.  It got to the point where if I even tried to select the WDTVLIVE zone, it would disappear.  I have just reset the WDTVLIVE box to factory defaults.  The only settings I have changed is to set "Auto login to network share" to on and set the Workgroup name.  It is now working well.

Nick.

[sorepinky]

Thanks Nick.  I had considered that WD option previously, but I had interpreted WD's ambiguous language "Auto login to network share" as to share the WDs own attached library out to the network which didn't interest me as it has none, so I had left it OFF.  With it set to ON as you have intuitively done, my system seemed stable but guess what?  It only took three tracks and it was back to the monkey business.

[bob]

I'll test it more on Monday but I haven't been able to reproduce this behavior with ours. Perhaps one of you could do a wireshark trace and send it to bob (at) jriver (dot) com?
The procedure is outlined in the Sharing Plugins section of the wiki (just do a search in the wiki for wireshark).

Unfortunately since it doesn't happen right away, the trace will be large.

The reason is vanishes from the list is that we are getting a number of consecutive errors from the WD in a fixed period of time. The key would be to find out what is causing the error.

[sorepinky]

It seems to me that there are many people seeing this instability in JRiver with various renderers.  I have changed from the WD device to a Pioneer N-50 and the behaviour is exactly the same.  The Pioneer can pull fine all day using its own remote and Android control application, but when JRiver is used to push to it, it falls over after a few tracks and it happens every time.  I now have MC18 and it is the same as MC17.

Please developers.  Please put an effort into fixing this for 2013!  It wouldn't bother me since the audio plays when using the pioneer control App.  Problem is it is not anything like as good as Gizmo, but the Gizmo app needs stable rendering and the Pioneer N-50 doesn't even appear in the Play To list in Gizmo!!  AAARGH!

Merry Xmas.

[sorepinky]

I have found a solution around the MC instability.  The instability seems to be in MCs controller.

It works for me if I do not open MC at all on the PC.  Just leave the media server running in the background.  Also I have removed the Gizmo Android App.

Using BubbleUPnP as the controller on the Android tablet everything is then stable.

[JimH]

The Pioneer can pull fine all day using its own remote and Android control application, but when JRiver is used to push to it, it falls over after a few tracks and it happens every time. 

Those are two different cases.  Pushing and pulling aren't the same.  Lots of DLNA devices can play directly from a server but can't play when content is sent by a controller.

It would be worth checking for newer firmware.

[sorepinky]

I know that pushing and pulling are different.  Firmware is all up to date and as far as I can tell has nothing to do with the problem.  When using the Pioneer remote or when using the Pioneer Android ControlApp the N-50 pulls.  The Pioneer ControlApp speaks to the N-50 via the network.  The N-50 has its own music server.

BubbleUPnP is a controller.  It controls a push to the Pioneer device from the generic DLNA network media device installed with MC in Windows just like Gizmo should.  The Pioneer machine then displays "DMR" so it's certainly getting a push and everything works beautifully all day long - even with 192/24 FLAC material.

By comparison when using the Pioneer ConrolApp or its own IR remote the N-50 displays "Music Server" on its front panel.

IMO it stands to reason that there is a problem in MC's built-in controller.  If you'd prefer to target the renderers or their firmware rather than look into your controller that's your choice, but I am telling you it displays exactly the same instability on my system when pushing to both of the renderers that I tried.  The Pioneer is a certified renderer.  I'm pretty certain that if I tried a third renderer it also would vanish the same way from MC's Playing Now list after 1 or 2 tracks.

Incidentally I saw on the Android Shop a free control app specifically for the WD Live TV.  I haven't tried it and know nothing of its limitations, but it is there to be tried.  For the short durations before MC lost it, the sound quality from my WD renderer was in my opinion lo-fi so I got rid of it.

My system is working well with a third-party Android controller, so I have little motivation to participate further in this thread other than to help others.

[sskings]

I have three of these in my house working by a mixture of wired and wireless networking.  Everything works perfectly with defaults set on MC and the WD device.

[sorepinky]

That's great.  I'm so pleased for you.

However in my installation and that of others there is instability in MC's controller.

What's particulary uninspiring is that when I do see the Pioneer device (or previously the WD) on the network in the Playing Now area and right clicking for the drop-down menu alongside, then clicking DLNA Controller Options, two options appear.  One is about ignoring transport events and the other is about SetNext.  When they are there and you go to tick/check either, no tick appears and the two options simply vanish.  When selected again to see if there is a check there is none so you don't even know that clicking it in the first place did anything!  It's a disater area.

As fantastic as MC is in general, this part of it is highly unstable and needs to be fixed.

Else some proper and constructive advice on how to stabilise it rather than suggesting that the problem is elsewhere.

[JimH]

DLNA isn't as precise as you might hope.  There are a lot of nuances and sometimes firmware differences can be important.

[sorepinky]

Thanks Jim,

Sorepinky here.  I chose the nic as I hurt my finger on the day that I signed up.  I'm neither a sore person nor an internet tough guy.

A review of the thread suggests that the default settings won't work for people with "vanishing renderers" under MC and no solution to achieving stability with the JRiver controller is apparent - here or elsewhere in the forum.

Since substitution of a third party controller (in my case BubbleUPnP on an Android tablet) achieves perfect stability, it would seem that the problem is in the JRiver software - not in the renderer and not in its firmware.  It would be really nice to have the JRiver controller run properly because the third party tablet conrollers require that the tablet be left running and draining the batteries, whereas a tablet with Gizmo can even be turned off and the whole album will keep playing because Gizmo is simply a window to the PC-based controller, so I am here to see how stability in the JRiver controller might be achieved.

Attempting to activate items in the drop-down menu mentioned in my previous post results in non-confirmation.

The renderer on my network is a good quality certified DMR and it works well.

There is no firewall issue.

Seeking a way of getting the JRiver controller to work.  Do you or the developers have any instructions that your customers (like myself) could follow and if not do the developers have any plans to debug the controller?

Cheers

Edit:  I may have found a solution (have gotten through 7 tracks without a dissapearance) and shall post it tomorrow or the day after (either here or on my hi-fi blog) if further tests prove it.  I am here not only to find a solution for myself, but to share it with others if I do.

[GrowlHowell]

I've got a question, and since this seems to be a general thread, I figured I'd ask here. (Yell at me if I shouldn't have!)

When pulling music or movies from MC into my WDTV Live SMP, the cover art looks like junk. All of the cover art images that I have stored are of the highest quality, some up to 1500x1500 or so. I've tried just about everything I can think of, but to no avail. The thing I am noticing is that it's happening on the server side, as I'm able to view the images in the log. They always come out to ~160x160. I just can't seem to figure out why.

Has anyone else here experienced this? Any ideas as to what could be causing it, or how I might be able to fix it?

Thanks, guys!

[bob]

I've got a question, and since this seems to be a general thread, I figured I'd ask here. (Yell at me if I shouldn't have!)

When pulling music or movies from MC into my WDTV Live SMP, the cover art looks like junk. All of the cover art images that I have stored are of the highest quality, some up to 1500x1500 or so. I've tried just about everything I can think of, but to no avail. The thing I am noticing is that it's happening on the server side, as I'm able to view the images in the log. They always come out to ~160x160. I just can't seem to figure out why.

Has anyone else here experienced this? Any ideas as to what could be causing it, or how I might be able to fix it?

Thanks, guys!

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=76784.msg520012#msg520012
Most devices can only handle a very limited range of artwork/thumbs.

[NickF]

Edit:  I may have found a solution (have gotten through 7 tracks without a dissapearance) and shall post it tomorrow or the day after (either here or on my hi-fi blog) if further tests prove it.  I am here not only to find a solution for myself, but to share it with others if I do.

Did your solution work out OK?  Could you post it here please.  Thanks.

Nick.

[bob]

I've got a question, and since this seems to be a general thread, I figured I'd ask here. (Yell at me if I shouldn't have!)

When pulling music or movies from MC into my WDTV Live SMP, the cover art looks like junk. All of the cover art images that I have stored are of the highest quality, some up to 1500x1500 or so. I've tried just about everything I can think of, but to no avail. The thing I am noticing is that it's happening on the server side, as I'm able to view the images in the log. They always come out to ~160x160. I just can't seem to figure out why.

Has anyone else here experienced this? Any ideas as to what could be causing it, or how I might be able to fix it?

Thanks, guys!

Did a little checking into the art size.
If you have DLNAextra enabled (Advanced settings under DLNA configure ...), we provide 400x400 and 180x180. If you have the "small artwork" option set (also in Advanced) you get 120x120 (most compatible).

[jmone]

Played with mine again last night and it was looking good with Video Playback (and transcoding) just using the std Generic DLNA settings but at random times (early) in the video playback it kept dropping out with the msg "The Last Content Source Has Been Removed..." and it would prompt you to reselect the DLNA server again.  I have the lastest firmware and was testing using wired E'Net.  In googling this there seems to be tons of such links all with various suggestions, so far I have tried:
- Changing the Workgroup Name
- Reboot the unit

...But same issue.  Anyone else seeing this or any Suggestions?

Again no probs connecting to the network, seeing the MC DLNA server, Connecting to the MC DLNA Server and browsing then playing files but after 30sec to a few minutes it wold drop out.

[csimon]

Try disabling MC as a Media Renderer in Media Network. I read that tip somewhere and strangely it worked. I don't need any other device controlling MC via DLNA.

[bob]

I'd like to know if that changes anything for you too..

[jmone]

Just to be clear, do you mean Uncheck "Tools--> Options--> Media Network--> Advanced--> DLNA Renderer" on the PC that runs the Media Server the WDTV Live is connecting to?

[jmone]

OK - Did the above and got the same Msg after a couple of minutes of playback.

[csimon]

Yes. Oh well, bang goes that theory.

[jmone]

I will have to retest as I check just the Firmware and got another "version" being updated - so the update last night was to 12.14 ....

[jmone]

Nope - No change.  Also tried turning off DLNA controller as well.  I'm just using the std Generic Settings - any others to try?  My impression is that this is an issue with the WD TV Live box given all the posts about this error msg but NFI what causes it or any reliable workaround.

[jmone]

FYI - just tested using wireless ... same result as well...

[jmone]

FYI - The model I have is the WD TV Live Streaming Media Player and it is now on Firmware 1.13.18 - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

It's about to go into the bin.

[bob]

I don't know what's going one with these new ones. We'll probably have to buy one here.

[jmone]

You can have mine for testing if you want to pop over and pick it up! 

[JimH]

You can have mine for testing if you want to pop over and pick it up! 

Do you have a picture of your guest room?

[jmone]

(its in the Annex which is a bit away from the Main House!) .... 

[JimH]

Good.  Do you have a dock?

[Matt]

Did you ever see the SNL sketch where Adam Sandler wants to house sit?

Just let the boy sleep in your bed.